What are your thoughts? It surprised me that a Republican vetoed this anti-gay marriage bill, but it was a pleasant surprise. Plaudits to him.

In that gay marriage is recognized as a right protected by the constitution (which it is, now, without question), state officials do not have the right to recuse themselves from officiating same sex marriages. The logic of recent supreme court opinions does not vest in public employees a right to recuse themselves on the basis of their religious beliefs -whether sincerely held or not, and to the extent that this article says otherwise it is wrong. No individual, who is an employee of either a state or federal government, enjoys a right to religious liberty which entitles them to discriminate in their official capacity.

They are free to worship and believe as they please; to attend churches which preach whatever they want, to profess any belief they chose. But, if a person is an employee of the state, their rights to religious liberty do not entitle them to usurp the constitutional rights of others. McCrory's decision as (while politically costly for him, I predict) constitutionally correct.